内容简介
Bob Dylan and his artistic accomplishments have been explored, examined, and dissected year in and year out for decades, and through almost every lens. Yet rarely has anyone delved extensively into Dylan's Jewish heritage and the influence of Judaism in his work. In Bob Dylan: Prophet, Mystic, Poet, Seth Rogovoy, an award-winning critic and expert on Jewish music, rectifies that oversight, presenting a fascinating new look at one of the most celebrated musicians of all time. Rogovoy unearths the various strands of Judaism that appear throughout Bob Dylan's songs, revealing the ways in which Dylan walks in the footsteps of the Jewish Prophets. Rogovoy explains the profound depth of Jewish content — drawn from the Bible, the Talmud, and the Kabbalah — at the heart of Dylan's music, and demonstrates how his songs can only be fully appreciated in light of Dylan's relationship to Judaism and the Jewish themes that inform them. From his childhood growing up the son of Abe and Beatty Zimmerman, who were at the center of the small Jewish community in his hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota, to his frequent visits to Israel and involvement with the Orthodox Jewish outreach movement Chabad, Judaism has permeated Dylan's everyday life and work. Early songs like "Blowin' in the Wind" derive central imagery from passages in the books of Ezekiel and Isaiah; mid-career numbers like "Forever Young" are infused with themes from the Bible, Jewish liturgy, and Kabbalah; while late-period efforts have revealed a mind shaped by Jewish concepts of Creation and redemption. In this context, even Dylan's so-called born-again period is seen as a logical, almost inevitable development in his growth as a man and artist wrestling with the burden and inheritance of the Jewish prophetic tradition. Bob Dylan: Prophet, Mystic, Poet is a fresh and illuminating look at one of America's most renowned — and one of its most enigmatic — talents.
作者简介
Seth Rogovoy is an award-winning music critic, radio commentator, musician, and author of The Essential Klezmer: A Music Lover’s Guide to Jewish Roots and Soul Music (Algonquin Books, 2000).
His writing has appeared in Newsday, Haaretz, the Boston Phoenix, Hadassah Magazine, the Forward, and on the web at the Rogovoy Report (www.rogovoy.com). He lives in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, where he is editor-in-chief of Berkshire Living magazine. His grandparents were from Russia, and he has blue eyes.
精彩书评
"Of all the influences resulting in the genius of Bob Dylan’s music, far too little attention has been paid to Dylan’s Jewish heritage. Seth Rogovoy corrects that deficiency by deftly weaving together his love of Dylanology with his love of Judaism." — Ed Siegel, contributor to WBUR-FM and the Boston Globe op-ed page"Seth Rogovoy proves that he is not only a master of Dylan’s music and life journey, but most significantly, of the whole idea of prophecy.
Rogovoy’s Dylan stays true to his core vision through an era that would have tested Isaiah. In the clarity of his own vision, Rogovoy’s Bob Dylan: Prophet, Mystic, Poet stands with Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed, and Greil Marcus’ The Shape of Things to Come. Few books make that distinguished cut. This one does. It is required reading for those who seek to understand not only Dylan, but the meaning of their own life. This is serious stuff. It’s also a pleasure to read. Each page is a ride with music all its own." — Rabbi Alan Berg“Even after almost fifty years, the language of Bob Dylan’s songs remains full of uncharted territory. Seth Rogovoy is uniquely qualified to examine the connections between Dylan’s songwriting and the Jewish liturgy, and Prophet, Mystic, Poet helps fill in one more piece of an endless and endlessly fascinating puzzle.” — Alan Light, former senior writer at Rolling Stone and frequent contributor to The New York Times"A book to add to the shelf of your Bob Dylan library -- Seth Rogovoy offers a unique perspective that examines Bob Dylan within the spectrum of Jewish religious history, but is never scholarly or pedantic. It's an entertaining read, with fresh anecdotes (at least to me they were!).
Mr. Rogovoy culls images from religious texts and matches them with Bob Dylan's lyrics; he also points out when the lyrics preceded the events that they would seem to be about, suggesting that Bob Dylan is in fact a prophet, included in the lineage of Jewish Prophets. I enjoyed this book very much and found it thought-provoking." -- Suzanne Vega"A bold attempt to explain why Dylan so often sounds like my zeyde." -- Michael Wex, author of Born to Kvetch and How to Be a Mentsh (and Not a Shmuck)
前言/序言
蓝调的挽歌与不朽的低语:一部关于美国音乐史与文化变迁的史诗 本书并非聚焦于任何一位特定的音乐家或单一的艺术流派,而是深入剖析了二十世纪中叶至二十一世纪初,美国社会文化光谱如何通过音乐的演变而折射、重塑和最终定型的宏大叙事。这是一部关于声音、权力、身份认同以及时代精神流动的编年史。 我们将从战后美国经济繁荣的表象之下涌动的暗流开始。二战结束后的“黄金时代”,表面上是郊区化、电视普及与消费主义的胜利,但底层的张力——种族隔离的残酷现实、冷战带来的核恐惧以及日益增长的世代鸿沟——正在酝酿一场文化上的大爆炸。本书将详尽考察早期的蓝调复兴运动,特别是芝加哥电声蓝调(Chicago Electric Blues)如何从密西西比三角洲的泥土中崛起,成为城市青年反抗精神的原始脉冲。我们不仅关注像Muddy Waters或Howlin' Wolf这样的标志性人物,更深入挖掘那些被主流历史遗忘的、在昏暗酒吧里用吉他与口琴敲击出社会现实的乐手群像。 随后,叙事线索将自然地转向“民谣复兴”(Folk Revival)的兴起。这不是简单的怀旧,而是一场知识分子与社会活动家对“真实性”和“本土性”的激烈追寻。我们考察了格林威治村(Greenwich Village)作为思想熔炉的生态系统,分析了早期抗议歌曲的结构和功能。在这一部分,重点将放在音乐如何被用作工具,而非单纯的娱乐载体。从劳工运动的赞歌到争取民权运动的集会圣歌,音乐成为了跨越阶层和地域的无声政治宣言。我们将对比美国东海岸知识分子对“传统”的浪漫化构建,与南方非裔美国人社区中音乐的生存功能之间的微妙差异。 本书的中间部分,是对“声音的革命”——摇滚乐爆炸性成型的细致解剖。这不仅是一场关于音量和节奏的改变,更是一场对既有道德规范的颠覆。我们探讨了早期摇滚乐的种族融合本质,分析了猫王(Elvis Presley)的形象是如何在白人中产阶级家庭中引发的恐慌,以及这种恐慌背后隐藏的对性解放和种族界限模糊化的恐惧。紧接着,我们将视角转向英国入侵(British Invasion)的影响,这不是一次单向的文化输出,而是一场复杂的文化回流与再加工。分析披头士(The Beatles)和滚石乐队(The Rolling Stones)如何吸收了美国蓝调的精髓,并将其以一种更具商业化和结构化的形式返销给美国听众,最终改变了流行音乐的制作标准和创作视野。 在探讨六十年代末“迷幻时代”时,我们聚焦于声音技术与意识形态的交织。从费城到旧金山,合成器、失真效果器以及录音室技术的进步,如何使得音乐不再仅仅是现场表演的记录,而成为了一个可塑的、独立于现实的空间。本书将探讨“音乐节”作为一种临时乌托邦的社会学意义,分析这些盛大集会如何成为一代人寻找共同身份和反主流文化的载体,即便这些乌托邦的构建常常是短暂且充满矛盾的。 进入七十年代,随着社会理想的褪色和音乐产业的成熟,风格开始碎片化。我们详细分析了“创作歌手”(Singer-Songwriter)的兴起,探讨了这种个人化、内省式的叙事如何回应了越南战争后的普遍虚无感和个人主义的回归。同时,本书没有回避对朋克(Punk)运动的审视——这种对复杂音乐结构和商业主义的激烈反动,如何通过其极简主义和DIY精神,短暂地重申了音乐的原始力量和可及性。 最后,本书将目光投向八十年代MTV时代的到来,分析视觉媒介如何开始主导音乐体验,以及电子乐和嘻哈(Hip-Hop)文化的崛起如何标志着美国文化重心向城市边缘地带的转移。嘻哈不仅仅是一种音乐风格,它是一种信息传递系统、一种对城市景观和体制压迫的即时评论。我们审视了从街头涂鸦到录音室制作,这一文化如何系统性地挑战了长期以来由白人主导的音乐产业结构。 通过对这些流派、人物和技术的交叉分析,本书旨在揭示一个核心主题:美国音乐史并非是线性进步的记录,而是一系列永恒的对话——关于自由与控制、过去与未来、主流与边缘——这些对话通过吉他、鼓点和歌词,持续不断地在空气中回响,定义着一代又一代人的集体记忆与文化身份。这是一部关于声音如何构建和解构美国的深度考察报告。